Jeremy Liebbe
DISD investigator Jeremy Liebbe, who was fired earlier this month, has released a document from the district marked “confidential” that explains charges against him.
The school district investigated seven charges against Liebbe during his suspension from the district and responded to the allegations over the weekend. The charges range from attempting to disable the IT department’s access to the computer servers without IT’s knowledge to running a background check on his supervisor who failed to divulge information about her criminal background on her employment application.
DISD hired the firm of Vincent Lopez PC to investigate the matters. Carlos Lopez conducted the investigation, spoke to some district employees as well as Liebbe, and conducted a check of Liebbe’s emails on his district-issued laptop.
“Throughout the past eight weeks I fully cooperated with the district’s administration, attorney Carlos Lopez, and the district’s internal auditors,” Liebbe said. “I wish I could say they extended me the same courtesy.”
In his response, Liebbe discounts each of the charges.
As part of his job description, Liebbe’s responsibility was to “manage the implementation of the security of all investigative files and systems.”
The district claims Liebbe installed security camera in his department without informing personnel outside his department. Liebbe said the district installed two of the cameras and purchased the other four. When the other four were not installed, he and another investigator installed them. Both sides agree he let everyone in his department know the cameras were there.
Liebbe had another employee look up the criminal background of Tonya Grayson, his supervisor. He felt it was inappropriate to check her background himself, since he reported directly to her.
The other employee found her criminal background but wasn’t comfortable with having checked her background, so reported the incident to her superiors that same day.
The district questioned Liebbe’s checking the criminal background of new investigators coming into his department.
“State law requires criminal history background checks on all incoming employees of the district,” Bill Liebbe wrote in his answer to DISD.
Bill Liebbe is Jeremy’s father and has taken over as Jeremy’s lead attorney.
Another charge involves Liebbe encouraging and influencing other members of his team to file grievances over Grayson’s refusal to allow them to work over the July 4 holiday. Because one of his employees didn’t have enough seniority, her pay was docked for the holiday.
Liebbe said he encouraged an employee to speak with the payroll department to see what her options were.
The district wrote, “Liebbe very aggressively attempted to persuade some of the PSO employees to file a grievance against Grayson.”
None of the employees did file a grievance, “despite Liebbe’s encouragements.”
The sixth question involves Liebbe remotely accessing his district-issued laptop and deleting information from it while on administrative leave. Investigators claim they found software on the computer to remotely access the computer and during the investigation found his emails wiped out, user profile deleted and usage of his dropbox.
Liebbe claims he installed the software in case his computer was hacked or stolen because of sensitive and confidential information kept on the laptop.
“Copies of all of those documents remain on district servers,” Bill Liebbe wrote in the response.
A final complaint involves getting parental consent to record interviews during investigations involving student witnesses or complainants.
“An employee shall obtain written consent from a student’s parent or guardian and from his or her principal before the employee may make or authorize a videotape of a student or record or authorize the recording of a student’s voice,” the district wrote.
“The recording by PSO investigators of student interviews, without obtaining consent from the parent or guardian does not violate district board policy or the Texas Education Code,” Bill Liebbe wrote in response.
